Virtual universes (VUs) or virtual worlds are computer-based simulated environments intended for its users or residents to inhabit and interact via avatars, which are personas or representations of the users of the virtual universes. VUs are also known as metaverses or “3D Internet”. These types of virtual universes are now most common in multiplayer online games, such as Second Life®, which is a trademark of Linden Research Inc. in the United States. Avatars in these types of virtual universes, which can number well over a million, have a wide range of business and social experiences.
Many regions of virtual worlds contain complex environments with large numbers of objects. Presently, virtual universes only cache a user's avatar or items the avatar is wearing or attached to the avatar and the object, textures and scripts within a predefined proximity of the avatar. Therefore, a user may experience delays when traversing regions as objects are downloaded upon entrance or while in transit to a region. Caching or pre-fetching objects by proximity may not provide the optimal experience for most users. The time to display an object varies by the size of the object and is constrained by download speed to the virtual universe client. It is conceivable that by the time an object is retrieved from the server, the user may have moved to a different location and not seen an object they were interested in or the land owner may want them to see.